Chapter 42

We all jumped up from our positions when Luciano grabbed Bernard's throat and slammed him to the wall. His men step forward but before he could touch him, a growl ripped through the air—a sound only belonging to the king that would demand submission.

"Stand down." Luciano warned them.

No one moved. They all stood back, allowing him to do whatever he wanted to do with Bernard who's face had taken a pale turn. One of the perks of being a King was that no one could disobey you, even if you weren't in your own grounds.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know." The words barely made their way out of Bernard's throat.

"Well, now you do." Luciano slammed his fist into his face and I heard a snap of a jaw breaking apart. It was painful but exactly what he deserved. As the old man fell on the floor, he grabbed him and pulled him back on his feet. "Do you want me to kill him, Red?" He asked me.

All eyes turned on me and I choked on my breath. I turned my head at Dillion—he was horrified. I didn't want him to see Luciano kill someone on the same minute he learned we were his daughter's.

"No." I replied, shaking my head. Surely we could all use some relief and not see someone die. "Not today."

Luciano turned his attention back to the old, bastard wrapped around his hand and cleared out everything, "If I see you ever again near me, my wife or my family, I'll snatch of your head myself and tear you apart from limb to limb. Do you understand that?"

Bernard gave him a short nod that quickly ended when he scurried out of the room, his men following him and taking him out of the house and maybe the town. I sighed and ran my hand through my head to ease down the throbbing pulses in there.

While Bernard was gone, we still had a mess to clean up and a lot of questions to ask. The room was cleared out, anyone not among us was sent away, including the servants and Sonya who had also heard and seen it all.

After long minute of silence, one of us had to break it and it was Anna, the sister with courage. "Well, this wasn't supposed to happen like this but we found what you had been hiding." Her voice held back the pain. "I was sent off to England by my Mother during my birth and there wasn't much I knew about her except that she died soon after giving birth to us." Her eyes turned at me and she gave me a short smile. "I knew about Red and my grandmother but that was all."

We sat down with Dillion—our Father and told him everything from the beginning—to why we came here, that we were connected with Cordelia, that I died, that my Nana died and that a lot more.

Annabeth told her part of the story, when she lived her with her caretaker and it was the first time I heard her speak about her childhood. It was dull with no flicker of hope or happiness. But when she grew up, in her earlier teenage years, she searched for me and Nana and learned about us.

At the right time, she stole Fiona from Gretel and kept her under her care for a couple months before contacting Luciano which led us to meeting for the first time ever.

After she ended, I told Dillion about my years with his Mother, my Nana and how happy she was with me. We spoke about a lot of stuff. Time ticked by painfully and the night grew darker and stormier.

"I was mated with the King and almost two years back, I left Nana and started my new life with Luciano." I said, wrapping my hand around his. My time with him was a rollercoaster, constantly spinning around but it was a thrill that I never wanted it to end.

"And now you have a daughter?" Dillion asked.

I nodded, small tears appearing in my eyes, "Yeah, she's the most precious thing in the world."

"The most chaotic too," Anna said, laughing. "Ugh, she used to constantly cry all the time when she was six months. Whenever I held her, she quieted down. I guess it was because she got a sense of her Mother from me."

I sniffed and wiped away the wetness of my cheeks before giggling. Anna might not have been Fiona's Mother but she definitely took care of her more than I could ever and that made my heart throb with love.

Dillion shifted on his seat and lied back while running his hand across his jaw. "That's a lot I've missed." He didn't speak much and only gave us his apologies—which weren't necessary.

Neither of us blamed him or even our Mother for separating us at birth.

At the thought of Mother, her dead face flashed my mind and I quivered from within.

"We saw what was in the room in the East Wing..." I trailed off. "And the way our Mother, she can't be bought back to life, even with magic."

"I know." He mumbled, sadness in his eyes. "I just can't get myself to stray away from her."

"You won't. But keeping her like that, it's going make your life more miserable. She needs to be buried and her body needs to be rested. I'm no place to say this, but you've to move on. She'll never return," A tear stained my cheek again and I fisted my hands together. "It's been more than a decade and I know you must've loved her but it's time to loosen all hopes and move on. She would've wanted that." I knew it when I saw her after my death.

She wanted him to move on.

I stood up from the couch I had buried myself into and walked over to my Father. Anna did the same. We sat on either side, making up for the lost time and moments we could've had if one of us had known earlier.

Dillion stretched his arms over us and we moved into his embrace. The knot in my stomach loosened and I closed my eyes and felt it.

I felt my Father again after twenty years.

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